Protests against China's high-intensity quarantine policy, the so-called 'zero corona' policy, are spreading throughout China.

Protests that started last weekend in university districts have spread to major cities such as Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu, Lanzhou and Guangzhou, as well as Beijing, the capital.

Slogans such as “Leave the Communist Party,” “Leave Xi Jinping,” and “Against dictatorship” appeared.



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Like the Tiananmen massacre, college students led...

Kidneys show 'solidarity'


There have been sporadic counter-lockdown protests before.

However, most of them were 'livelihood' protests such as "Give me something to eat" and "Please let me go back to my hometown."

The protesters were also 'farmer workers' who came to the big cities in search of jobs in rural areas.

Such were the protests at the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and the protests by workers in the Guangzhou Textile Complex in Guangdong Province.



This time the aspect is different.

For three days from the 25th to the 27th, protests took place at around 50 universities across China.

Tsinghua University, the alma mater of President Xi Jinping, was no exception.

Like the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, university students took the initiative.

Beyond complaints about simple quarantine measures, they demanded 'freedom' and 'democracy'.

He spoke of the Communist Party and President Xi Jinping, which had been taboo, and even shouted "against censorship."

It is a pattern in which dissatisfaction with the system that has accumulated over the years is being expressed all at once.



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The start of this protest was a fire incident in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Ten people died and nine people were injured in a fire that occurred on the evening of the 24th, and suspicions arose that the fire was delayed due to the corona blockade.

It is said that the entrance of the apartment and the front door were blocked, delaying the entry of fire trucks and firefighters.



As is well known, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is a representative place where controversy over oppression of the human rights of minorities in China is being raised.

In China, it is also taboo to discuss human rights issues in Xinjiang Uighur.

However, memorial rallies were held across China for the victims in the region, which soon turned into anti-government protests.

A consensus has spread that 'people are dying not because of the corona but because of the government's quarantine policy'.

Furthermore, it can be interpreted as a 'sense of solidarity' expressed by major cities across the country for Xinjiang Uyghur.

It is the first nationwide protest since the Tiananmen Square massacre.

This is why the Chinese central government and the Communist Party have no choice but to accept it more sensitively.



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"Copernican Transformation"...

"The change of the Chinese people has begun"


It's not just college students and intellectuals.

This movement of change is also being detected among the common people, that is, 'Lao Baixing'.

Recently, as the number of corona19 infections has reached an all-time high every day, the number of residences that are blocked, especially in Beijing, is rapidly increasing.



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When the quarantine authorities try to seal the apartment, residents come out and protest, saying, "The local government is arbitrarily infringing on the people's rights and interests."

If you try to drag a confirmed person to a group quarantine facility, the residents will stop you from taking them because it is not their job.

Although there are some aspects where the quarantine standards at the Chinese central government level have been somewhat relaxed, these protests are bringing about real change.

The blockade of the apartment is lifted in a few hours, and the confirmed person is isolated at home instead of a group quarantine facility.

In the meantime, we have only followed the government's 'great cause', but now we are looking for individual rights and interests.

There is a growing perception that staying still will only damage you.

One person who has been in China for over 30 years described it as a "Copernican turn."

I don't know how widespread and explosive this will be, but 'change has begun'.

Chinese authorities warned of tough response...

Containment and isolation seem to be reduced


The key is how the Chinese government steps forward.

What is noteworthy is that the Chinese government and officials have begun to discuss the 'external power connection theory'.

The intention is that external forces intervened in these simultaneous protests, which is the logic the Chinese government used to suppress the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in 2019.

This is a part that foreshadows the hard-line suppression of the protests.

In fact, in Wuhan and elsewhere, Chinese armed police, "special police," were mobilized to suppress protests.



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On the other hand, in the quarantine policy, there is a possibility that the Chinese government will release it to some extent.

In fact, China has also been looking for a way out of 'zero corona'.

First of all, because the economy is crumbling.

However, since 'Zero Corona' has been cited as one of the greatest achievements of President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party, it is difficult to withdraw as if nothing happened overnight.

This is because it can be seen as a policy failure.

This is because the status of President Xi and the party, who claimed that Chinese-style quarantine is the best scientific quarantine, may fall.

For this reason, China waited for the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the end of the corona, for mutations with lower fatality rates than Omicron to become the dominant species, or for breakthrough vaccines and treatments to come out.

At that time, it was a step to solve'Zero Corona' after opening a 'Corona Victory Competition' on a large scale.

But now it's a situation where I can't just sit back and wait.

In order to appease the angry public, we must come up with carrots as well as sticks.

This is why it is expected that short-term measures such as blockade and quarantine target and period reduction will continue to come out, even if it is not a full-scale lockdown lift.